Thursday's Most Active Threads

Yesterday was another day in which political topics dominated the most active threads with three of the four threads that I will discuss today posted in the "Political Discussion" forum. The first of these was titled, "HARRIS IS SELECTING MARK KELLY" and, of course, posted in the "Political Discussion" forum. The original poster started this thread on Wednesday saying that Vice President Kamala Harris would announce that evening that she had chosen Arizona Senator Mark Kelly to be her running mate. The original poster provided no source for this claim, though in a follow-up post said that she has a "source who knows stuff". Apparently her source is a posterior body orifice given that Harris has yet to declare a choice, let alone announce that it is Kelly. I believe that I intended to remove this thread at the time it was created but got distracted. The thread duplicated another thread on the topic of Harris' Vice Presidential pick and was obviously not supported with any sort of legitimate source. Later in the thread the original poster, without identifying herself, claimed that Harris had selected someone other than Kelly and started sock puppeting answers to her own posts. Therefore, all indications are that this was a troll thread from the start. Regardless, the thread did provide the opportunity for many DCUM posters to give their opinion about Kelly. From the moment Harris emerged as President Joe Biden's replacement as the Democratic nominee for President, conventional wisdom assumed that she would choose a straight White male as her running mate. This was exactly what former President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had done and such a move would balance the ticket nicely. For the most part, the only question is which bland White man would Harris choose. I agree with many of the posters in this thread that Kelly is as good a choice as any of them. Maybe not my favorite, but certainly not the worst selection. Kelly's strengths are that he can help carry Arizona and has a good reputation as a former astronaut and for his work on gun control. His weaknesses include a lack of executive experience and concern by unions that he has not been as supportive on labor issues as they would like. Generally, Kelly seems like he would be a solid pick and, if he didn't attract a significant number of voters to the ticket, he won't alienate many either. Whether Kelly will actually be Harris' choice remains to be seen. The original poster could turn out to be correct about the VP selection, if not the timing. But, ultimately, a troll could just be a troll and the nod will go to someone else.

The next most active thread yesterday is the only one that was not posted in the politics forum. Instead, it was posted in the "Off-Topic" forum. Titled, "Where is there so much hate for Midwestern people on DCUM?", I assume that there was a typo and the original poster meant "Why is there" instead of "Where". The original poster went on to say that most people in this area come from flyover states and asks if this is "self hate". Personally, I think the original poster's premise is wrong. I feel fairly comfortable in saying that most people here are not, in fact, from flyover states. This perception suggests that the original poster is herself a transplant and has mostly been in contact only with other transplants. There are, of course, plenty of midwesterners who have moved to the DC area. I am one myself, though I arrived here nearly 40 years ago. But most residents of this area hail from this area. The next largest group comes from near by. But while the original poster may be uninformed, a sheer avalanche of ignorance poured from those responding. Posters claimed that midwesterners are all MAGAs or White nationalists and that they are unsophisticated, uneducated, and boring. None of that is true. As several posters point out in this thread, the DC area is one of the best educated areas in the country. Unfortunately, those educated folks don't appear to be participating in this thread. A major misunderstanding is that the midwest is all the same. Far from it. Contrary to a claim made by one poster in the thread, Minnesota is different than Missouri. Moreover, even within states there are considerable differences. Chicago and its suburbs have very little in common with the rural towns of southern Illinois. The residents don't even have the same accent. Based on the posts in this thread, many DCUM posters don't seem to be aware that there are actually cities in the midwest. Moreover, just as in the thread I discussed yesterday about Chicago, there is some weird disdain for the Big 10. I am baffled by this, but since I am a Big 10 alumn, I probably just lack the sophistication to understand it. Folks, the University of Maryland is in the Big 10. So is Penn State and so are several West coast schools. The Big 10 is not just a midwest league (nor is is just 10 schools). At any rate, this thread may take the cake as one of the stupidest ones ever on DCUM. It takes a lot to make me nostalgic for Illinois, but this thread did it.

Next was a thread titled, "Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan released" and posted in the "Political Discussion" forum. The original poster simply linked to an ABC News story about yesterday's prisoner exchange between Russia and several Western countries. The original poster, whose only text was "Great news!" was apparently excited that Wall Street Journal correspondent Evan Gershkovich and former Marine Paul Whelan were included in the exchange. Another journalist, Alsu Kurmasheva, who is an US-Russia dual citizen and Vladimir Kara-Muza, a legal permanent resident of the US were also released. Russia also released a number of political prisoners. In exchange, several Russians who had been arrested for spying, and in at least one case for murder, were released back to Russia. By all accounts, this exchange was primarily a result of President Joe Biden's personal efforts. He apparently used his influence with a number of other international leaders to convince them to participate by releasing Russian prisoners. Biden was even involved on days dominated by other events such as the day that he announced that he would drop his bid for the presidential nomination. Many posters in this thread were excited to see the prisoners released from Russia and proud of Biden's efforts to make it happen. That showed that while he may have lost a step or two, he still is capable of laudable feats of leadership. On the other hand, Biden critics were not willing to concede anything to him. Former President, current cult leader, and convicted felon Donald Trump has previously said that Gershkovich would only be released after Trump was elected. He may have believed that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin had an understanding, but if so, Putin obviously did not stand by it. At any rate, Trump was incensed by the release and immediately issued a statement criticizing the exchange. There was a time when all Americans would be happy see other Americans freed from the ordeal of a Russian prison. But such times are gone. Now everything is seen through the prism of political partisanship. Biden supporters argued that this is a victory for him, which it is. Trump supporters claimed that Putin had made a deal with Biden because he was afraid to negotiate with Trump. That is ludicrous. The only negotiation Putin would have with Trump is about how high Trump would jump when Putin told him to. Similarly, it is amazing how quickly the "American First" MAGA posters in this thread were to take Russia's side over Biden's.

The final thread that I will discuss today was, like the previous thread, posted in the "Political Discussion" forum. Titled, "Donald cannot figure out if Kamala is ‘Black’ or ‘Indian’ - how about choice ‘C’, Donald, both!", I probably should have locked this thread since it is redundant with the thread I discussed yesterday about former President, current cult leader, and convicted felon Donald Trump's appearance at the National Association of Black Journalists. As I mentioned yesterday, Trump argued that Vice President Kamala Harris has previously identified as Indian but more recently decided turn Black. Because this topic was included in my discussion of the NAJB thread, I will be quick today. I have no idea what benefit Trump thinks that he can get from the issue of Harris' ethnicity. Factually, Harris has an Indian mother and a Black Jamaican father. As the original poster says, Harris does not have to choose between being Indian or Black. She is both. When Trump tried to portray Harris as an Indian and not really Black when he spoke to the NAJB, he probably thought that he was cleverly driving a wedge between Harris and the Black community. By all indications, this is a failed strategy. But, I've noticed that Trump cannot ever accept that he is wrong and simply move on. Instead, his tactic is to double down. Hence he has continued his attempts to demonstrate that Harris is actually Indian (which she is) but, for some reason, not Black (which she also is). When I call Trump a cult leader, I am not joking. His cult followers in this thread dutifully lined up to do their best to support Trump's allegations. They post memes, screenshots, and tweets showing any instance in which Harris has described herself as Indian or discussed her Indian heritage. There is nothing wrong with that, but I am fairly certain that it is not proving what those posters think it is proving. In the most extreme cases, Trump cultists suggest that Harris is faking her Black identity in a similar manner as they accuse Senator Elizabeth Warren of faking being an Indian. First of all, Warren appears to have believed family legends that she had Indian heritage. She didn't invent her claims about her heritage out of whole cloth. She was wrong, but she wasn't lying. Harris is not only not lying, she is not wrong. She is factually half-Black. But, the anti-Harris efforts in the thread didn't end there. Because her father is from Jamaica, some posters argued that Harris not an African-American and does not share the heritage of the descendents of slavery. At some point, identity is not a scientific determination. You don't even have to get very deep to get to that point. Identity rests on an individual's perception of themself and society's perception of them. If some African Americans believe that Harris does not share their experience, I am not going to argue with them. But, factually, Black Jamaicans are, for the most part, descendents of the same slave trade that was responsible for the enslaved ancestors of today's African Americans. Anyway, good luck trying to divide Harris from the Black community. Better for the cultists to spend their time attempting to do that rather than on issues that might be more effective against Harris.